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T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line
The T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra railway line is a line that operates between Bondi Junction, Waterfall and Cronulla. The line is coded with the sign on maps and at stations. The Illawarra Line is known for being the first railway line anywhere in Australia to operate electric train services, which first commenced in March 1926. This line is operated by Tangara T sets for all suburban services, and OSCAR H sets for services linking to the South Coast Line. The H sets also sometimes operate morning peak express services to Hurstville and Sutherland. The T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line is the only major suburban line on the Sydney Trains network to not operate Waratah A sets. This is due to the substations on the line not being upgraded to suitably operate them without causing power issues due to them drawing more power from the overhead wires than the T and H sets, as well as the line mostly being in a sector that is more self-contained and isolated, meaning it is usually easier to run one type of rolling stock. Route The Eastern Suburbs Line runs between Bondi Junction in Sydney's east and Redfern, just south of the Sydney central business district. It is mostly underground, and consists of 7 kilometres of bored tunnels and 1.5 kilometres of cut and cover tunnels, with only 2 kilometres above ground. In the Eastern Suburbs, three tunnels proceed in a westerly direction from Bondi Junction via Edgecliff and Kings Cross; in each of these tunnels there are stations. Between Bondi Junction and Edgecliff there is a short open-air cutting in Woollahra, and between Edgecliff and Kings Cross there is a short viaduct over Rushcutters Bay. From Kings Cross, the line proceeds west towards the Sydney Central Business District on a viaduct that passes over the suburb of Woolloomooloo and the Eastern Distributor. The line then passes into a tunnel underneath the Art Gallery of New South Wales to a station underneath Martin Place. Turning south, the line proceeds through Town Hall, Central and Redfern stations, before emerging behind the Eveleigh Railway Workshops. The line is double track throughout, with turnback sidings at Martin Place and Bondi Junction for citybound trains, and at Central for trains from Bondi Junction. The Illawarra Line commences at Illawarra Junction at Redfern and travel on the 'Illawarra' (eastern pair) tracks. A dive tunnel allows Intercity services from the South Coast Line to cross underneath the main suburban lines to access Central station. The Illawarra lines are also connected at this point to the Illawarra Relief Lines which emerge from underground and lead to the Eastern Suburbs Line. From Illawarra Junction, four tracks head south through Erskineville and St Peters to Sydenham station. The 'main' pair of tracks are used by Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line and South Coast Line trains and the 'local' pair by Bankstown Line and peak hour Airport, Inner West & South Line trains. At Sydenham, the Bankstown railway line branches off, but trains from the Airport, Inner West & South Line continue along the Illawarra line until Wolli Creek, where a junction to the East Hills line branches off. South of Wolli Creek station, a crossover allows trains from the 'main' pair of tracks to switch to the 'local' pair. This is used by peak hour all-stations Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line trains. The four track section ends at Hurstville. The line then continues as two tracks south towards Sutherland, crossing the Georges River via the Como railway bridge between Oatley and Como. At Sutherland the Cronulla line branches in an easterly direction through Kirrawee, Gymea, Miranda, Caringbah, Woolooware and Cronulla. The Cronulla branch opened in 1939 as the replacement for a former tram line. The main line then heads in a southerly direction, through Loftus, Engadine and Heathcote, parallel to the Princes Highway to the west and bordering the Royal National Park on its eastern side until Waterfall, the last suburb on the T4 line in the Sydney metropolitan area. The track continues south from here as the South Coast Line through the Royal National Park towards the Illawarra region. The current running operations for passenger services have remained generally unchanged since 1981 with the integration of the Illawarra line and the Eastern Suburbs Railway. Suburban services utilise Erskineville Junction and proceed to Central and Bondi Junction. The last S sets were withdrawn from Mortdale Maintenance Depot in March 2013 (after the last S set ran T4 line services on 8th March 2013) with all services now provided by Tangara and OSCAR sets. Trains on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra typically operate with 12 services per hour in peak, six services per hour in off-peak, and four to six services per hour on weekends and public holidays. During the peak, shuttle services which operate between Bondi Junction and Hurstville, stopping at all T4-serviced stations in between, run every 10 minutes in peak hours. The line has five possible termini - Hurstville, Mortdale, Sutherland, Waterfall and Cronulla. Some services on the T4 line occasionally make additional stops at Erskineville and St Peters stations if the T3 Bankstown Line is closed for trackwork, or during major service disruptions. Due to the Bankstown Line from Sydenham to Bankstown being converted to rapid-transit for the Sydney Metro City & Southwest network starting in 2024, Erskineville and St Peters will become permanently serviced by the T4 line. Erskineville and St Peters' former role on the Bankstown Line will be replaced by the new underground Waterloo metro station. Stations |} Gallery Stations BondiJunctionStation.jpg|Bondi Junction EdgecliffStation.JPG|Edgecliff KingsCrossStation.jpg|Kings Cross MartinPlaceStation.jpg|Martin Place Town_Hall_Railway_Station_Platform_2.jpg|Town Hall CentralStation.jpg|Central Redfern_railway_station.jpg|Redfern SydenhamStation.jpg|Sydenham TempeStation.JPG|Tempe WolliCreekStation.jpg|Wolli Creek ArncliffeStation.jpg|Arncliffe BanksiaStation.jpg|Banksia RockdaleStation.jpg|Rockdale KogarahStation.jpg|Kogarah CarltonStation.JPG|Carlton AllawahStation.JPG|Allawah HurstvilleStation.jpg|Hurstville PenshurstStation.jpg|Penshurst MortdaleStation.jpg|Mortdale OatleyStation.jpg|Oatley ComoStation.JPG|Como JannaliStation.jpg|Jannali SutherlandStation.jpg|Sutherland LoftusStation.JPG|Loftus EngadineStation.jpg|Engadine HeathcoteStation.jpg|Heathcote WaterfallStation.jpg|Waterfall KirraweeStation.jpg|Kirrawee GymeaStation.JPG|Gymea MirandaStation.jpg|Miranda CaringbahStation.jpg|Caringbah WooloowareStation.JPG|Woolooware CronullaStation.JPG|Cronulla Fleet SydneyTrainsTsetNew.jpeg|Tangara T Set NSWTrainLinkHset.jpeg|OSCAR H Set (peak only) Category:Sydney Trains Category:Sydney Trains Lines Category:Waverley Council Category:Woollahra Council Category:City of Sydney Category:Inner West Council Category:Bayside Council Category:Georges River Council Category:Sutherland Shire